Microsoft Corp. announced the release of the beta specification for XML for Analysis — a new protocol that extends the Microsoft business intelligence strategy to the Microsoft.NET vision of Web services, allowing application developers to provide analytic capabilities to any client on any device or platform using any programming language. Built on HTTP, XML and SOAP with more than 50 industry players instrumental in its development. As an extension to OLE DB for OLAP and OLE DB for Data Mining, XML for Analysis uses the Internet as the platform for building analytical applications from diverse sources of data, thus enabling developers to provide better Web services for analytic data. Corporations can now allow trading partners, customers and suppliers to access data easily and securely over the Web without worrying about client operating system, application language or middleware compatibility issues. XML for Analysis expands access to business intelligence by increasing the flexibility for developers to incorporate analytical data within applications that reside remotely on the Internet, or even those that are hosted by another company. Users can achieve a new level of pervasive data analysis because they have access to data from any client ranging from a PDA to an Internet-enabled phone, interactive TV device, laptop computer or PC. XML for Analysis is a fully compatible advancement to the OLE DB for OLAP and OLE DB for Data Mining protocols. The beta specification of XML for Analysis is now available for download at www.microsoft.com/data. A beta software development kit of XML for Analysis is planned to be available for download in early 2001, and final specification and software for XML for Analysis are scheduled to be available in the first half of 2001. www.microsoft.com
Category: Web technologies & information standards (Page 55 of 58)
Here we include topics related to information exchange standards, markup languages, supporting technologies, and industry applications.
The World Wide Web Consortium has issued Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Advancement of the document to Candidate Recommendation is an invitation to the Web development community at large to make implementations of SVG and provide technical feedback. Web designers have requirements for graphics formats which display well on a range of different devices, screen sizes, and printer resolutions. They need rich graphical capabilities, good internationalization, responsive animation and interactive behavior in a way that takes advantage of the growing XML infrastructure used in e-commerce, publishing, and B2B communication.
Web designers demand vendor-neutral, cross-platform interoperability. SVG brings the advantages of XML to the world of vector graphics. It enables the textual content of graphics – from logos to diagrams – to be searched, indexed, and displayed in multiple languages. This is a significant benefit for both accessibility and internationalization. Related W3C specifications such as the Document Object Model (DOM) allow for easy server-side generation and dynamic, client-side modification of graphics and text. SVG also benefits from W3C technologies such as CSS and XSL style sheets, RDF metadata, SMIL Animation and XML Linking. In addition to being an excellent format for stand-alone graphics, the full power of SVG is seen when it is combined with other XML grammars; for example to deliver multimedia applications, hold business data, or render mathematical expressions. Bringing the XML advantage to vector graphics benefits all industries that depend on rich graphics delivery – advertising, electronic commerce, process control, mapping, financial services, and education all have immediate needs for SVG.
The SVG Working Group consists of key industry and research players including, in alphabetical order: Adobe Systems, AOL/Netscape, Apple, Autodesk, Canon, Corel, CSIRO, Eastman Kodak, Excosoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, ILOG, IntraNet Systems, Macromedia, Microsoft, OASIS, Opera, Oxford Brookes University, Quark, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox. www.w3.org
OASIS announced public access to the first phase of the XML.ORG Registry (http://xml.org/registry), an open registry and repository for XML specifications and vocabularies.
Designed to foster collaboration and enhance communication within industries, the XML.ORG Registry provides the community with a resource for accessing the fast-growing body of XML specifications being developed for vertical industries and horizontal applications.
Committed to open industry standards, the XML.ORG Registry offers a vendor-neutral forum for developers and standards bodies to publicly submit, publish and exchange XML specifications and vocabularies. Operated as a non-commercial venture, the XML.ORG Registry is a self-supporting resource created by and for the community. Industry groups and other organizations that have developed XML specifications can freely register their work at the XML.ORG Registry.
The OASIS “no strings attached” submission policy ensures that developers receive the benefits and recognition they deserve while retaining all the rights to their work and control over its use.
From its inception, the XML.ORG Registry has been a consensus-based effort to ensure interoperability with existing and emerging XML initiatives. The XML.ORG Registry developers continue to work with the OASIS Registry & Repository Technical Committee to define a specification for a global network of repositories. This specification is intended to allow interoperable registries to be created for use within industry organizations, communities and corporations. Ultimately, the XML.ORG Registry will link to standards-compliant repositories as they become available, as well as provide resources on its own site.
The XML.ORG Registry was made possible by the donation of resources from Documentum, Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corporation, IBM and DataChannel and demonstrates their commitment to providing the community with an open, independent resource for publicly available XML specifications. Sponsors of XML.ORG include DataChannel, Documentum, Commerce One, GCA, IBM, Mercator Software, Oracle Corporation, SAP, SoftQuad and Sun Microsystems. www.oasis-open.org
SoftQuad Software, Ltd. and Vignette Corporation announced that they have partnered to provide e-businesses with a comprehensive platform for implementing and deploying XML-based content solutions. Through the integration of SoftQuad’s XMetaL content-creation platform, and the Vignette V/5 eBusiness Platform, businesses can now leverage the use of XML technology. This partnership allows for the deployment of Web-based solutions that capture content from a wide variety of sources and integrate it with both internal and external systems. SoftQuad Software has become a Vignette Technology Partner and will also become a Vignette V2B Services partner. Vignette V2B Services streamline the process of purchasing, implementing and using e-business applications. Vignette V2B Services are provided via the Vignette V2B MarketPlace and Vignette V2B Communities. The integration of the two products gives e-businesses the ability to efficiently create and work with XML documents within a productive workflow environment, enabling the delivery of personalized content that attracts customers and builds successful e-relationships more quickly than ever before. With XMetaL’s word processor-like interface, more people within an organization can quickly create content directly in XML, or convert documents from other formats including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, into XML. Content creators can then save XML documents directly within the Vignette V/5 eBusiness Platform production workflow. To further streamline the approval and revision process, XML content can be retrieved and submitted to Vignette’s Web-based workflow management interface or directly from within XMetaL. The transparency of the integration dramatically decreases the costs associated with providing an XML content solution and accelerates the speed with which e-businesses can deliver customized content to their customers. www.vignette.com, www.softquad.com
SoftQuad Software, Ltd. announced MarketAgility, an XML-based content solution that gives businesses more power and control over the creation, management and real-time delivery of product information to e-marketplaces and e-procurement systems. MarketAgility provides suppliers with an efficient and cost-effective way to move product information from their enterprises to multiple electronic distribution channels. MarketAgility 1.0, formerly code named Global OnRamp, is scheduled for release in September, 2000. Suppliers until now have had trouble collecting their product information, which has generally been located in disparate sources throughout their enterprises. It’s also been difficult to translate that information into the various distinct formats required by different e-marketplaces. Even after these initial barriers have been overcome, suppliers have still found it hard to maintain up-to-date product and pricing information and to target and differentiate their products across multiple distribution channels. MarketAgility lets suppliers quickly leverage their existing infrastructure and business processes to collect product information from wherever it resides in the enterprise, whether in content management systems, electronic resource planning systems, enterprise databases, or Microsoft Word or Excel files. It then automatically delivers this information in a format that is fully customized for different e-markets in their specific dialect of XML. In addition, MarketAgility allows suppliers to maintain their competitive advantage by rapidly and incrementally updating product and pricing information across all channels. MarketAgility is comprised of three major components: the MarketAgility XML Connector, the MarketAgility XML Server, and the MarketAgility XML Transporter. MarketAgility also incorporates SoftQuad’s XMetaL technology, an enabler for XML content applications. MarketAgility allows content revisions to be made directly within XML. Suppliers can now easily supplement their product data with rich content and better differentiate themselves in e-markets. MarketAgility supports common industry standards such as BizTalk, W3C Schemas, xCBL and cXML. www.softquad.com
Arbortext, Inc. announced their product support of the W3C’s Recommendation for XHTML 1.0. Available in Arbortext software products, this support provides customers a way to reformulate HTML 4 as XML. XHTML 1.0, a W3C Recommendation, allows authors to create Web documents that can be processed by XML-enabled software while still working with current HTML browsers. With XHTML 1.0, XML’s promise of being able to mix and match known HTML 4 elements with elements from other XML languages is extended to more application domains including wireless devices and eBooks. Available immediately, XHTML support can be downloaded from www.arbortext.com. All Arbortext customers are eligible to receive this at no charge as an update from the Arbortext Support Web site. Adept version 8.0 and above and all versions of Epic support this update. www.arbortext.com
Visa International has introduced a new specification that will increase a corporation’s ability to automate B2B purchasing functions and monitor travel and entertainment expenses worldwide – both on the Internet and in the physical world. The new Visa Global Invoice Specification uses XML to exchange invoice and payment data across industries and technical processing platforms. Implementation of the specification enables corporations to negotiate prices and control costs, as well as increase productivity by eliminating manual processes. The new Visa Global XML Invoice Specification was developed with Visa technology partners Commerce One, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and ValiCert, Inc. These partners provided Visa with an extensive review, validating Visa’s efforts to use XML technology and supporting Visa’s contribution to the buyer / supplier value chain of enhanced data. With its use, corporate clients will have a standard way to process detailed information on procurement transactions, as well as T&E spending on airline travel, hotels and car rental. In the near future, Visa plans to expand the specification to support other merchant sectors including healthcare, maintenance, repair & operations (MRO) and fleet services. Visa is also supporting the global invoice needs of buyers and sellers around the world who choose to use the specification for their own invoice processing and payment services. This means that developers may use the specification independent of the payment brand and can integrate multiple payment types into their data-flow processes. Visa has compiled a comprehensive list of data elements used in most invoices and has classified them into the following information areas: Buyer/Supplier, Shipping, Tax, Payment, Currency, Discount, and Line Item Detail. Visa can also deliver the XML invoice data across VisaNet, Visa’s global network. Visa used the Commerce One Common Business Library (xCBL) as the foundation for the Visa Global XML Invoice Specification and is working with several international XML governing bodies, including ebXML, for its official adoption as a standard. Other international standards organizations include Oasis/XML.org, and Microsoft BizTalk. Visa will work with Members worldwide to install the new Visa Global XML Invoice Specification and has conducted a pilot project in the European Union which has successfully proved that the specification can accommodate the information collection and delivery needs of all commercial users. www.visa.com/xml.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released the XHTML 1.0 specification as a W3C Recommendation. This new specification represents cross-industry and expert community agreement on the importance of XHTML 1.0 as a bridge to the Web of the future. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C membership who favors its adoption by the industry. HTML currently serves as the lingua franca for millions of people publishing hypertext on the Web. While that is the case today, the future of the Web is written in XML. XML is bringing the Web forward as an environment that better meets the needs of all its participants, allowing content creators to make structured data that can be easily processed and transformed to meet the varied needs of users and their devices. In designing XHTML 1.0, the W3C HTML Working Group faced a number of challenges, including one capable of making or breaking the Web: how to design the next generation language for Web documents without obsoleting what’s already on the Web, and how to create a markup language that supports device-independence. The answer was to take HTML 4, and rewrite it as an XML application. The first result is XHTML 1.0. XHTML 1.0 allows authors to create Web documents that work with current HTML browsers and that may be processed by XML-enabled software as well. Authors writing XHTML use the well-known elements of HTML 4 (to mark up paragraphs, links, tables, lists, etc.), but with XML syntax, which promotes markup conformance. The benefits of XML syntax include extensibility and modularity. With HTML, authors had a fixed set of elements to use, with no variation. With XHTML 1.0, authors can mix and match known HTML 4 elements with elements from other XML languages, including those developed by W3C for multimedia (Synchronized Multimedia Language – SMIL), mathematical expressions (MathML), two dimensional vector graphics (Scalable Vector Graphics – SVG), and metadata (Resource Description Framework – RDF). W3C provides instruction and tools for making the transition from HTML 4 to XHTML 1.0. The “HTML Compatibility Guidelines” section of the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation explains how to write XHTML 1.0 that will work with nearly all current HTML browsers. W3C offers validation services for both HTML and XHTML documents. W3C’s Open Source software “Tidy” helps Web authors convert ordinary HTML 4 into XHTML and clean document markup at the same time. www.w3.org/
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